Qualla: Bristol Harbour https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/h/bristol-harbour-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Bristol Harbour https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour Bristol Harbour: Introduction https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour/ Photo credit Immanuel Giel, Public domain. On 7 June 2020, during a Black Lives Matter protest, demonstrators pulled the bronze statue of Edward Colston off its plinth in Bristol city centre, jumped on it, daubed it in red paint, rolled it through the streets, and threw it into Bristol Harbour. Colston had made his fortune as a deputy governor of the Royal African Company. He had personally overseen the transport of an estimated 84,000 African men, women and children into slavery, of whom perhaps 19,000 died on the voyage. The harbour where his statue sank had been built on the wealth that traffic generated. The water that closed over him had carried his ships.

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Image: Immanuel Giel | Public domain

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/h/bristol-harbour-wp/gcnh-bristol-harbour-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bristol Harbour: The Floating Harbour https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour/ Photo credit Lewis Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0. Bristol grew up on the banks of the rivers Avon and Frome, with one of the largest tidal ranges in the world. At low tide ships sat in the mud. The phrase shipshape and Bristol fashion came from the local practice of building hulls strong enough to take their own weight when grou...

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Image: Lewis Clarke | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/h/bristol-harbour-wp/gcnh-bristol-harbour-the-floating-harbour.mp3 0:06 2 full Bristol Harbour: Cabot, tobacco, and the slave trade https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour/ Photo credit Photograph taken by Rob Brewer, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bristol had been a great Atlantic port for centuries before the Floating Harbour. By 1420 Bristol ships sailed regularly to Iceland, and some historians believe Bristol sailors had reached North America before Columbus. John Cabot left from Bristol in 1497 on the Matthew and made...

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Image: Photograph taken by Rob Brewer | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/h/bristol-harbour-wp/gcnh-bristol-harbour-cabot-tobacco-and-the-slave-trade.mp3 0:06 3 full Bristol Harbour: Brunel's ships, Brunel's docks https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. By the 1830s Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the engineer of choice for ambitious Bristol projects. He upgraded Jessop's locks, rebuilt parts of the harbour and designed two of the most important ships ever launched from it. The SS Great Western, built at William Patterson's yard ins...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/h/bristol-harbour-wp/gcnh-bristol-harbour-brunels-ships-brunels-docks.mp3 0:06 4 full Bristol Harbour: Reckoning with the past, slowly https://qualla.com/bristol-harbour/ Photo credit Tiia Monto, CC BY-SA 3.0. Trade moved out as ships grew larger. The Royal Edward Dock at Avonmouth opened in 1908, and the deepwater Royal Portbury Dock in 1972, making the city centre docks redundant for freight. The last Bristol shipbuilder, Charles Hill & Sons, closed in 1977 after delivering the beer ...

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Image: Tiia Monto | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/h/bristol-harbour-wp/gcnh-bristol-harbour-reckoning-with-the-past-slowly.mp3 0:06 5 full